Posts

Image
 A TANGLE OF LIGHT By Tessa Harvey     Adrienne gulped the last of her drink, scraped back on her chair deliberately, knowing how much that had annoyed her mother. Her face was bitter and angry, her eyes stormy and grey.     "Why should I give you a chance? Who ever gives second chances?" "God does," was the quiet reply.     "Oh, how convenient. Let's have God now and all be perfect." She swayed on her feet, suddenly exhausted. Her mother helped her to her room and Adrienne lay on the familiar bed in the pretty room she had once thought a prison.     Exhausted, she fell asleep in seconds. Her mother watched her for a while, saw how the girl's face softened in sleep, becoming an older version of the child she had allowed to drift away, to neglect. How cruel had she been.     She went quietly out of the door and reached for her neglected Bible. Perhaps God would make a way where there seemed to be no way - heal her own mother's heart ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT   By Tessa Harvey     "I never knew who your dad was. It was one night returning from the hospital to the Nurses' Home. The shift had been longer than usual. Several desperate emergencies. A little girl with a savage dog bite. The finger could be saved, the bones would heal, but the father, an arrogant paramedic claimed it was the child's own fault. He delayed getting treatment too long."     She paused, remembering. "But, mum, that's sad and I do care, but you loved me once. Was it because I became a teenager? Was I so very ugly?"     Annabelle was horrified. "No, of course not - it's just I became afraid. You wanted to be a nurse, and I thought what happened to me would happen to you. "Your dad was not kind, abusive really. But I didn't talk to you. I tried, but it was easier to drift away. Will you forgive, try and understand. Give me another chance."
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT  By Tessa Harvey     Adrienne walked away from the hospital. It was a beautiful day. Blue sky etched the red colours of a small perfect maple, the cherry tree leaves sang a symphony of gold, orange and green whispering in the wind. The cold was sharpening. Adee wondered what to do. The man she had known as dad was leaving. It was hard, though he had rarely been kind.     Somehow she had never quite measured up. Not clever enough or pretty enough, shy rather than assertive. Her shoulders sagged.     Despite feeling the Presence of God in her nan's hospital room, smelling that beautiful perfume from heaven, she still felt sad.     Gran wasn't yet out of danger, though there was hope now. Then arms wrapped around her, and she startled, dark hair flying, eyes widening in dismay. Oh God, not Jono.     It was her mother. "What's wrong?" Adee snapped gracelessly. "Now you're alone, I guess suddenly you want a daughter. We...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT  By Tessa Harvey          There was a loud knock at the door. Saxon opened it, curious;  ready to push back any unwelcome intruder.      A smiling man stood there, holding a big box of groceries and an envelope. He was young, his face seemed to shine. There was an aura around him, a Presence stood with him.     Amor and Saxon just stared. The man caught sight of the broken mug, the blood, the tears...     "it's you," the older man Saxon exclaimed. "You came back!" The man looked puzzled, but then smiled again.     "You came up for prayer and signed a form accepting the Lord Jesus Christ. There were many such decisions, but God told me to come to you." He placed the groceries on a table, then pulled another basket from behind him. In it were coffee, tea, Milo and two identical beautiful mugs. "Jesus loves you," they proclaimed.     "When are your twins due, if you don't mind me ask...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT   By Tessa Harvey         Saxon   drew her back to the present. "Amor, we went past this dumb-looking church, but the singing stopped us. The words were unknown to us, there were no instruments, the harmonies were awesome, rising and falling. My mates were awe-struck too but wanted a drink.     As he spoke, Amor sank down on their little two-seater couch. It was shabby, as was everything else. No matter how hard she worked, there was never enough money.     Saxon was on a disability pension because of his traumatic early life, but claimed he needed drugs and drink to help cope - and other women, she thought angrily.     "Look," she rose up, tall in her nurse's uniform, "I am leaving tomorrow. My sister and partner have offered me a home after...." She bit her lip, aware she had said too much.     "No!" A tall thin man, already greying, Saxon grabbed her hands, accidentally knocking over Amor's ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT  By Tessa Harvey     Gently he wrapped his strong arm around her shoulder and guided her through the screen door into the warmth of their tiny lounge room.     "Not a woman, no," Saxon smiled, "a great man! A preacher!" "But you hate preachers!" Often Saxon had told her of the day a minister came to see the family. Saxon had been eight years old. The little boy's eyes had lit up - someone to kick a soccer ball around with, a new dad maybe. His mum said the other one had gone "visiting."          But the preacher man had taken one look at the tall grassy unkempt yard, at the old nan trying to make a garden and said: "my word, your nan needs help - a lot of help!"     His car reversed swiftly and he was gone.     Day after day Saxon watched and waited, a little boy's hope and fate hanging in the balance. Then one day, there was one piece of bread left. The new twins were crying. His big sister was hun...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
A TANGLE OF LIGHT  By Tessa Harvey          Then she looked at the "dead" woman. Her eyes widened. "The doctor has already signed your death certificate. He never makes mistakes!"     That night the nurse, whose name was Amor went out on her small back deck and looked at the stars. She recalled the beautiful smell in that hospital room when there previously had only been death. It was heavenly, like the most beautiful of roses but more precious.     Death meant nothing to her. She was having an abortion tomorrow anyway. No intruder was marring her perfect body. Then she recalled an old story of a young woman whose body had also been "marred." Her son was called Jesus. Had He really been scarred for her also? Had He really risen from death?     "God," she whispered, " if you are real, show me!"     The night wind stirred. That was all. She turned to go inside and banged into her partner. "I suppose you have been out dr...
Post a Comment
Read more